Last Wednesday I had an appointment with the doctor where they went through the schedule of how they were going to be doing the IVF treatment and how the medication would be working. So here it is, mostly so that I write it down and get it more firmly implanted in my brain.
April 12th (Today) I begin to take Lupron, this medicine keeps me from ovulating, the Lupron dose is given as a subcutaneous injection (abdomen or upper thigh shot), I take 20 units of it once a day in the evening, every day.
April 17th I stop the birth control, I take my last pill.
April 22nd I go in to have my baselines drawn. They will be doing blood work and an internal ultrasound to see how I am looking, as long as everything is normal I will be starting my next set of medicine.
April 24th I will probably start this new set of medicine. My Lupron dose will drop to 5 units every morning, and I will begin to take Follistim and Menopur, which both help me produce eggs. I will be taking 150 units of Follistim and 75 units of Menopur. Both of these are subcutaneous injections (abdomen or upper thigh shots), this will mean I will be taking 3 shots per day. I will take these for five days and then return for an ultrasound, so ultrasound probably on April 28th. I will take these shots for about 8 to 10 days.
The fertility clinic will be having me come in regularly to check and see how I am doing. Once I look like I am close they will have me take one injection of HCG (an intramuscular injection, meaning a butt shot with a long needle that will reach the muscle), which will cause me to ovulate, 36 hours after the HCG shot I will go into the hospital to have the harvesting done. I am guessing that this may happen on either May 6th or May 7th.
The harvest will go like this. I will go to the hospital, they will put me under, while I am under they will use an internal ultrasound to see where they are going and then use needles to harvest the eggs. Kevin will have to drive me home because I will be drugged up afterward.
After the retrieval I will begin three medications. I will take Doxycycline (an antibiotic, and a pill), and Medrol (a steroid, and a pill) for four days. I will also begin Progesterone in oil (this is a hormone that will help prepare the uterus for implantation and will help the embryo develop), this will be a daily injection and is another intramuscular shot (butt shot with long needle)
Three days after the harvest will be the transfer. During the transfer they will implant two to three embryos into my uterus. The hope is that one of them will attach. After the implantation I will continue to take Progesterone in oil until my pregnancy test, 14 days later. Then they will check my levels and see if I still need to take Progesterone, if I do I can then either choose to continue with the shots or begin to take a vaginal suppository. I will be going with the suppository, I can handle that better over a shot.
This means that I will have my harvesting sometime between May 4th to May 11th and my transfer between May 7th to May 14th, with my pregnancy test happening between May 20th to May 27th.
It feels crazy to think of all the shots, and all the crazy planning just to get pregnant. But if we end up pregnant it will be all worth it. Today I begin the shots, and that will continue for about a month in a half.
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